Debra L. Martin's Blog, page 339

Interview with Karl Friedrich

Briefly describe your journey in writing your first or latest book.My journey started when I was four or five years old. I was in my backyard in Tyler, TX. It was summertime, and for some reason my mother and I were rummaging inside an old shed, when she started talking about World War II military organizations for women. She most likely rattled off the WAAC and the WAVES—I was only half-listening—but at some point she mentioned the WASP, also known as Women Airforce Service Pilots. And suddenly I got the most vivid image of women with wings and stingers, buzzing about creating all kinds of havoc. That picture intrigued me far into adulthood; and in fact, I even did some research into the WASP.

Now jump forward to 1987. I was writing for an industrial advertising agency in LA and both the economy and the company had gone shaky, and I could see the writing on the wall. I'd already been a staff writer for a newspaper, magazines and several public relations firms, and found the work unfulfilling. What I'd always wanted to be was a novelist. So I decided I would gamble everything on becoming a good enough novelist to make a living. The next morning I got up early and started learning how. A few months later my agency job did end, and suddenly all of my mornings became my own.

I knew I would need a new occupation if I was going to follow this new path I'd chosen for myself, as advertising jobs are often unpredictable. So I found a staff job at a small law school, and that saw me through the writing of a novel. When it failed to sell, someone suggested I write about something that I knew something about, such as the WASP. Many years and even more rewrites later, WINGS A Novel of World War II Flygirls was finished and did sell. Happily, its April 1 debut was accompanied by some very good reviews, including one in Publisher's Weekly (kfriedrich.com) and in School Library Journal http://blog.schoollibraryjournal.com/adult4teen/2011/03/31/wings-a-novel-of-world-war-ii-flygirls/.

Did you query agents and traditional publishers?  How long before you got your offer of representation/your first contract?I'd promised myself that my book would be traditionally published. So I queried agents, because I'd read that publishers only deal with agents.  And I got a lot of rejections, and I couldn't understand what I was doing wrong. Eventually I did get an agent, who's been around forever and who sells lots of manuscripts, but she couldn't sell mine. Another year would pass before I was offered a contract; and that happened purely through my own efforts.

What factors influenced your decision to go with a particular agent or publisher?Agents kept telling me they liked my story but they didn't know where to sell the manuscript. Luckily, as it turned out, I knew someone who knew someone at several large publishing houses, and it was an editor at one of those houses that suggested I pitch smaller publishers that specialize in historical fiction. McBooks Press in Ithaca, NY, happened to be the first one that I queried, and they bought it.

I'm very fortunate. There are so many horror stories of editors switching houses and leaving their writers' projects in disarray. McBooks is a mid-size house with a small, stable workforce; and my editor, Jackie Swift, is phenomenal. I'm guessing that most unknown debut novelists with the large publishers don't get the service that I've gotten from McBooks.

Are you currently under a traditional publishing contract for future books or do you have manuscripts that you will publish directly for Kindle?My contract is for one book, which is in hardcover and electronic formats.

What lessons have you learned being an indie author vs. being traditionally published?I might have been published years earlier if I'd stopped concentrating on agents and started looking for publishers of historical fiction that will work directly with authors. Of course, the reason I didn't do that is because I lacked information. So, like something lost in a maze, I kept butting my head until I finally located the secret door that lead to my reward.

Did you design your cover art?  If not, would you care to share your graphic designer's information?McBooks has a fantastic art director by the name of Panda Musgrove. She's responsible for the art on the cover of WINGS, which shows fire and smoke reaching up for a lone, tiny WW II bomber that's flying across a feminine background. 

As I understand the story, Panda was walking down a sidewalk in New York many years ago, and she came across a yard sale. One of the items she picked up was a sample book of wallpaper that had been popular during the forties, and it's one of those samples that became the background for the little bomber. Panda's great!

If you used a graphic designer/publisher's designer, how involved were you during the creative process for your cover?I tried to stick my nose into the process, was rebuffed, and fortunately was smart enough to go sit down, shut up, and let people who do this for a living do so.

What kinds of social media [twitter, facebook, webpage, blog, writing forums] are you involved with trying to garner publicity for your book(s)?I'm on Twitter at least every other day, and on Facebook at least several times a week. My webpage/blog is kfriedrich.com. A number of things are there: 1) the first two chapters of my book 2) a feature called Postcards From Portland, which is a collection of true anecdotes that range from trying to swap my Fiat for movie star Robert Wagner's Ferrari, to being shot at on a Portland, OR, freeway and selling the investigating officer a copy of my book while we stood on the side of the freeway.

My publisher participated in a giveaway of 60 copies of my book to members of Goodreads and Librarything, and I plan to engage those winners in a series of dialogues.

Besides Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?The independents, Barnes and Noble and museums are selling them.

What is the best advice you can offer new authors?The same advice that everyone gives: keep trying, don't give up. But I'll add a couple of things. Once you're well into the writing, hand some part of your manuscript to everyone; to strangers on the street, if you have to. I did that. More than one hundred women, many of whom I never met, got a look at my book as I was writing it. When they started asking for more (without any prompting—many of these were strangers, remember. Someone I knew had given it to someone they knew, and often then to someone else), I knew I was learning to write a novel. What I didn't do was join a writing club. I didn't care what would-be writers like me thought. I wanted feedback from readers, especially if they didn't owe me anything.

I've already talked about my second piece of advice. Don't become myopic. If your path isn't getting you anywhere, try to find out why and find another path. If you have talent and skill and a story that readers want to read, chances are pretty good that eventually you'll succeed.

What's next for you?I'm heavily involved in marketing my book. I spend a lot of time on the telephone and in front of search engines, because I want to write the sequel.  

  

Funnies!

You just can't make this stuff up!  Life is stranger than fiction.  Enjoy!











I handed the teller at my bank a withdrawal slip for $400.00 
I said "May I have large bills, please."

 She looked at me and said, "I'm sorry sir, all the bills are the same size."
 When I got up off the floor I explained it to her....


When my husband and I arrived at an automobile dealership to pick up our car, wewere told the keys had been locked in it.  We went to the service department and found a mechanic working  feverishly to unlock the driver side door. As I watched from the passenger side, I instinctively tried the door handle and discovered that it was unlocked.  'Hey,' I announced to the technician,  'it's open!'  His reply: 'I know. I already got that side.'

 This was at the Ford dealership in Canton, MS
We had to have the garage door repaired. 
The Sears repairman told us that one of our problems was that we did not have a 'large' enough motor on the opener. I thought for a minute, and said that we had the largest one Sears made at that time, a 1/2 horsepower. He shook his head and said, 'Lady, you need a  1/4 horsepower.' I responded that 1/2 was larger than 1/4. He said, 'NO, it's not..' Four is larger than two.'   We haven't used Sears repair since.



I live in a semi rural area. We recently had a new neighbor call the local  township administrative office To request the removal of the DEER CROSSING sign on our road.The reason: 'Too many deer are being hit by cars out here! I don't think this is a good place for  them to be crossing anymore.

 My daughter went to a local Taco Bell and ordered a taco. She asked the person behind the counter for 'minimal lettuce.' 
He said he was sorry, but they only had iceburg lettuce. 
 -- From Kansas City      
 

 I was at the airport, checking in at the gate when an airport employee asked, 'Has anyone put anything in your baggage without your knowledge?' To  which I replied, 'If it was without my knowledge, how would I know?' He smiled knowingly and nodded, 'That's why we ask.'

 Happened in Birmingham, Ala.  
 

 The stoplight on the corner buzzes when it's safe to cross the street. I was crossing with an intellectually challenged coworker of mine. She asked if I knew what the buzzer was for.  I explained that it signals blind people when the light is red. Appalled, she responded, 'What on earth are blind people doing driving?!' 
She was a probation officer in Wichita, KS     At a good-bye luncheon for an old and dear coworker who was leaving the company due to 'downsizing.' Our manager commented cheerfully, 'This is fun. We should do this more often.' Not another word was spoken. We all just looked at each other with that deer-in-the-headlights stare. This was a lunch at Texas Instruments.



How would you pronounce this child's name? 
"Le-a"
Leah??--NO
Lee - A??--NO 
Lay - a??--NO 
Lei??--Guess Again.This child attends a school in Kansas City, Mo.Her mother is irate because everyone is getting her name wrong.It's pronounced "Ledasha".When the Mother was asked about the pronunciation of the name, she said,"the dash don't be silent."  SO, if you see something come across your desk like this, please remember to pronounce the dash.

If dey axe you why, tell dem de dash don't be silent.             BEWARE: 
They walk among us......and they VOTE

The World of Symbols

The World of Symbols: IntroductionMichelle Snyder

Pictures and images surround us every day, competing for our attention. They tell us about things we could have, do, and avoid. From road signs to computer icons they tell us what we need to know. Logos for businesses convey more than just the name – we understand the type of product or service it offers just from the picture; the golden arches of MacDonald's are recognized worldwide. Our flag is the symbol of our country. Alphabets are made of symbols that when placed in a certain order, convey information. Pictorial symbols are constructed of shapes and colors that when placed in certain formations convey information. Symbols help us navigate our world.

Symbolism is the art of creating images that abstract concepts, or represent large amounts of information. For example, a heart scratched into a tree means someone is loved, the use of a bird within a symbol can represent the connection between the earthly and the heavenly, or a wolf in sheep's clothing warns of deception.

Symbology is the process of placing images in proper historic context to decode them. Ancient civilizations that did not "write" passed on information orally in mythologies accompanied by symbols. The use and meaning of a symbol can change as cultures are combined by the course of events, and as generations pass. We find the same or similar images across the globe; they have migrated from place to place with the cultures that use them over many thousands of years. The study of these symbols from ancient civilizations has become a science. Asking who, what, when, where, why, and how helps establish historic context when decoding symbols. Knowing when and where a symbol was used is the first step in extracting their meaning.

One symbol from antiquity still used today is the Double Eagle, which symbolizes Yesterday and Tomorrow, although, like most classic symbols, this emblem is now layered with meanings. This regal image is found in the heraldry of monarchies and Czars throughout Europe. Egyptians used hieroglyphs depicting lions (and other animals) facing East and West to symbolize past and future.

"Our understanding of today rests upon the foundation of our understanding of yesterday." Understanding symbolism leads to better appreciation of yourself and others. If you are on a quest for enlightenment, deciphering symbols can help you grasp concepts which words cannot express, and become aware of the intelligence and industry of our ancestors. Most classic symbols have roots in astronomical notations of prehistoric cultures that watched the sun and stars, and recorded their movements. They symbolized concepts like yesterday and today, and events like sunrise and sunset, seasons, and years. These ancient images are the ancestors and roots of many symbols still used today.

Article and artwork  © 2011 by Michelle Snyder, author of Symbology: Decoding Classic Images, available at Amazon. Her website is www.whiteknightstudio.com.

#SampleSunday-The Crystal Facade

 
Dyla and Eclair stood across the street watching the activity on the grounds of Sir Henry's mansion.  They had positioned themselves along one of the side streets to watch both the front and the back with minimal effort hiding themselves in the numerous shops that dotted the street.  It seemed a typical day at the mansion, quiet with a few delivery trucks entering and leaving through the back gate.Eclair did one more survey of the front and turned towards Dyla.      "Do you think we should chance a look inside?"Before Dyla could answer, she spotted Munroe coming out the front door.  He hopped into his car parked in the driveway and headed for the street."Look, it's Munroe.  Let's see where he goes instead," Dyla replied."I'll grab us a cab."Eclair stepped into the street, waving his arms trying to attract a cab driver's attention.  Two black cabs sped by him without slowing down."Eclair, stop.  Let me handle this," Dyla said.She stepped off the curb, pushed her hip out and raised her hand at a passing cab.The driver screeched to a halt.Dyla looked at Eclair and grinned."Men are all the same no matter what planet they're from," she said and they climbed into the cab."Where to Miss?" the cabbie asked.Dyla pointed to Munroe's car exiting Sir Henry's driveway."Can you follow that car without getting spotted?" she asked, handing the driver a wade of money.  The driver took the money, glanced hungrily at the bills, and nodded vigorously."No problem, love," the cabbie replied.  "That fellow will never know anyone is following him."Dyla sat back and leaned over to Eclair."This could prove interesting."Eclair watched Monroe's car speed off, noting the direction he took.  "If he heads back to Soho, he's probably going back to his flat.""Yeah, but I'm hoping he'll lead us somewhere new and we'll learn something useful.  I don't like the idea of sitting around watching and hoping for something to happen."Eclair nodded and kept a close eye on the car.It wasn't long before Munroe turned off the main thoroughfare and headed down a secondary street along the Thames River.Dyla leaned forward to talk to the cab driver as he took the turn and followed Munroe."Where does this lead to?""Goes to the Port of London," the cabbie said over his shoulder.  "It's where most of the container ships dock and off load their goods.  Not exactly the nicest part of town.""OK, stay close, but don't let him see you.""No worries."Dyla watched Munroe drive along, eventually slowing when he approached an indistinct row of warehouses.  When he turned in, Dyla leaned forward."Stop here.  We'll get out now."After they got out, the cabbie leaned out the window.    "You want me to wait?"Dyla felt waves of greed emanating off the man while he questioned her, obviously hoping for another big payout.  "No, that's all right, we'll be fine on our own.""Suit yourselves," the cabbie replied. "Lots of nasty folks hanging about, you can easily get into trouble in the blink of an eye.""Thanks," Eclair said, "but I got things under control."The cabbie gave Eclair a once over and grinned broadly.    "Don't say I didn't warn you," he said, driving off. "What did he mean by that?" Eclair said, looking at Dyla."Nothing dear," Dyla said, patting his arm.  "He doesn't know what he's talking about.""Neither do I."Dyla smiled at the double meaning behind Eclair's comment.       ***"We tracked them to the mansion and then followed them to the docks.  They followed Munroe right to the warehouse."The team had easily followed the cab Dyla and Eclair took.  The streets were crowded enough that they were able to stay well behind without ever losing site of the cab.  Once the cab stopped at the warehouse, the team drove past and stopped further down the street.  It afforded them a good view of anyone leaving the warehouse parking lot without being spotted themselves.  The team leader listened for further directions.  "Roger.  We'll sit tight and follow them when they come out."***  Dyla and Eclair headed down along the row of warehouses and spotted Munroe's car parked near the end by one of the entry doors.  They moved slowly, keeping close to the side of the building looking for a clue or idea of what was going on inside.  All they found were blackened windows and locked doors."We have to get inside somehow.""Come here," Eclair motioned to her.  "I'll bend the light and we'll go in the door near Munroe's car."As soon as Dyla slipped her hand into Eclair's, they vanished.  Though she had done this many times before, it was still disconcerting to look through the slight distortion of Eclair's shield, knowing no one could see her.  Eclair gave her hand a reassuring squeeze and the two moved toward the door.  "Do you sense anyone nearby?" Eclair whispered."No."  Eclair opened the door and they went inside.  On the far side of the warehouse, the bay doors facing the docks were open and workers were busy unloading smaller containers from the ship.  Munroe was nowhere to be seen so they continued moving forward and looked around.  Eclair noticed an office at the other end of the warehouse and headed off in that direction.  It seemed the most likely place for Munroe to have gone.  Carefully the two approached the office, treading lightly to minimize any noise or sign of their passage.  They glanced inside the lone office window and noticed two desks with stacks of paperwork on both.  Fortunately, no one was sitting at either.  In the back of the office, there was an impressive looking vault.  The door was opened revealing a large lighted interior room.  The door of the vault looked as if it weighed a few tons.  They also noticed shadows of movement inside.      "Munroe must be in there," Dyla said."Do you want to go inside?" Eclair asked.  "I can easily hold my shield that long.""No, we better not test our luck.  Wait until he leaves and then open a portal to the inside.  Can you do that?""Yes, no problem, I've seen the inside," Eclair replied.  "If Munroe stays in there too long, we'll have to hide somewhere so I can drop my shield and rest."Dyla pointed at the vault."Looks like we won't have to wait after all.  Here he comes."Eclair and Dyla moved away from the office and hid behind a stack of boxes watching Munroe leave the office.  He stopped momentarily outside the office and looked around.  Dyla instantly threw a shield around them, hiding them from an empathic search.  Munroe stared in their direction for a moment, shook his head and then walked out of the warehouse.  Eclair waited until he heard Munroe's car start up and drive off before he released his concentration and dropped the invisibility shield.  Checking to make sure none of the dockworkers were looking their way, they entered the office.  "That was close," Eclair said.  "Let's get inside that vault and get this over with.""The sooner the better.  Let's find out what Munroe was doing in there." Eclair nodded and opened a portal inside the vault.  As they stepped through, the automatic interior lights flashed on.  Looking around, the two gawked at what they found."Damn!  Look at all those crystals."The vault walls were lined with rows of shelves from top to bottom and on every surface were clusters of raw crystals. Dyla exhaled loudly."I've never seen so many crystals in my life.  Why do they need so many?""Maybe there are more Otharians living on Earth than we know," Eclair replied."There is enough here to outfit a small army of PSIs.  There's no way they would use that many crystals on this planet." Dyla said. "Maybe they're for jewelry.  We've seen quite a few Earth people wearing them in necklaces and rings."Could be.""Whatever the reason, we need to get out of here before we get caught.""You're right.  Let's go back to the flat."Eclair opened a portal back inside Cat's living room.  They stepped through confident that they had discovered an important piece of the puzzle.***    

Review of DEATH HAS A NAME by Jerry Hanel

 4 of 5 stars

 DEATH HAS A NAME is a smart inventive story that puts a unique spin on The Truth, not my truth or your truth, but THE TRUTH.  For Brodie Wade, The Truth is something he can see and must obey unquestioningly or suffer the consequences.  And suffer he does—from traumatizing physical abuse to being declared insane in his childhood.  The author does an excellent job of slowly revealing Brodie's back-story throughout the book and it only makes you root more for this damaged young man. 

Brodie has channeled his psychic abilities into a semi-permanent job with the local police department.  His contact, Detective Phil Dawson, believes in Brodie and his ability even though he doesn't understand it.  Brodie cannot reveal how he knows the things he does because frankly, who would believe him—"oh, by the way, I see phantoms who speak to me and wisps of gray fog everywhere demanding I listen to its whispers."  The whole situation reminds me of the famous Jack Nicholson line in 'A Few Good Men', "You can't handle the truth!"

When Detective Dawson calls Brodie in on another gruesome murder scene, Brodie gets his bad tingling feeling about it.  When the investigation takes a horrible turn and another body turns up, Brodie finds himself the prime suspect for the murders and lands in jail.  What The Truth reveals to him next is something far worse than two dead men.  If Brodie cannot follow the clues and solve the murders, a lot more than his freedom is at stake.  If the Angel of Death is freed, life on Earth as we know it will be destroyed.

The story is fast-paced and kept my attention throughout.  I would have loved for the author to reveal some back-story on how Phil and Brodie met, but I suppose that's more material for another novel.  The copy I received, however, could use the eyes of a good editor.  There were typos that jarred me out of the story.  All and all, this is a very good book and I highly recommend it. 

Guest Post: Julie Lindsey

How My Love for Young Adult Novels Led to a Contract in Romanceby Julie Lindsey

First, I want to thank Deb for allowing me to be a part of her blog. I enjoy her so much and am excited to be here, so Thank you Deb!!! Now, my post ;)

How did I get a contract for a sweet romance? I am unashamedly YA obsessed. I'm not certain why that's true, but it definitely is. Aside from my Stephanie Plum addiction and Janet Evanovich worship, I'm really a straight YA girl.

I read a YA novel every day or two. Reading is like breathing for me these days and as a result my TBR pile is finally shrinking. I'm getting close to caught up on all the new releases. Thank goodness I found NetGalley where I can request books that haven't come out yet. I've been lucky enough to receive for ARC eBooks in the past two weeks through my membership there. I probably don't need to tell you they're all Young Adult titles.

Plenty of people have trouble understanding why I read YA so voraciously. I'm not sure I can articulate it as well as I'd like, but I want to try. YA novels are written with a teen main character, and the focus is on the teen life, drama, angst, chaos and love. No one worries about how to pay the bills or if their marriage is in trouble. There are no angry ex-husbands or dead end jobs to stress about. It's a fabulous escape from the daily grind of being a grown up. Better still, there is nearly always a romance element in a YA novel. Of course there is. Didn't boys make up the vast majority of our private conversations for over a decade?

Teens love to fall in love and so do I. I realize now this is another big reason I lean to YA for my reading. I try to fall in love with my husband on a daily basis and for the most part, I do all right. In a way, I thank all my YA reading for keeping it light and reminding me how precious love is. I want to preserve and nurture it, so I try.

Young Adult novels can be written in any genre, but the focal point is the teen. I read contemporary YA, paranormal YA, YA mysteries and thrillers and humor. I love them all and devour them daily. What I didn't understand until recently about my own fascination was that the thread binding them all was the romance. I get so wrapped up in the stories that I share the MC's sweaty palms and wobbly knees. I labor through the scenes of betrayal and I exalt in their reunions.

Honestly, I should've realized sooner. I'm addicted to love. Not the hot, wet, physical love, (though I don't dismiss that in any way-ever), but the sweet, tender, honest love which transcends all else. I believe in the love of two people who only want each other, who honor and respect and enjoy one another. I found that in my husband, and I love writing about it for my characters.

Sure, I was slow in my epiphany, but what counts is that it arrived.

This is where I put my theory to test. A dear friend of mine publishes romances books with a small press. I'd never considered submitting there because I thought of them as a romance publisher and myself as a YA writer. Turns out I was wrong. While my humorous women's fiction was on submissions with my agent this winter, I took a break from writing full-length manuscripts and drew up a short, sweet romance. The novel was complete at 24K words. It was the shortest novel I'd ever written. I submitted it to my friend's press and it was accepted.

Now, thanks to my obsession with true, unspoiled love and all its glory, I've found a new way to write my bliss. I found a home with Turquoise Morning Press publishing. My first novella, Bloom will be out in February 2012, and I hope to stop back later this year to tell you more about that.

I've since contracted a humorous women's fiction with kNight Romance Publishing too. It's titled Death by Chocolate, and it is the first in a three part series: The Killer Confections Saga.  Death by Chocolate will be on shelves in August 2012. It's a funny twist on an old favorite of mine, but it won't soon replace my love of romance.

My agent is reading my new YA submission as I type this post and I have my fingers crossed for that one. There's a love triangle, and first kisses, and honest joy nuzzled into all the seams and I hope desperately to see it in print one day too.

For now, I'm working on another sweet romance to keep Bloom company. Understanding that it's the romance that draws me in has shifted my writing in a new and exciting way. I hope to write many more stories of love before long. I hope too that you'll enjoy them.

Meanwhile, I hope you'll give YA a try and spend some time pinpointing why you read what you read. Maybe you'll discover another genre you love to write too!

Author Bio: As an only child I had plenty of time to people watch and make things up.  When I didn't think I could make a living at the latter, my love of people led me to a BA in Psychology instead.  A few years and three kids later, I discovered the thrill of writing. 

Hopelessly caffeine addicted and bouncing through life, writing became a harness for my seemingly endless supply of energy and enthusiasm.  Best of all, writing created something of value in the wake.

You can find me online – all the time J I blog my writing life at Musings From a Midwestern Writer where I share tips, thoughts & tricks for the writing life.  I keep an author site too and a facebook fan page, but you'll see me chatting on twitter @JulieALindsey around the clock. Look me up and say Hi!

Statistics for Two Ends of the Pen

I think most bloggers would agree that they want their blogs to be of interest to their followers.  I strive to schedule a diverse group of posts--hopefully, something of interest to everyone.  Every now and then I post the statistics.  I like to know how I'm doing and perhaps some of you do as well.



Here's the stats for Audience.  A hearty welcome to all my international followers. Last month I had over 6800 page views. To say the least, I was thrilled!





And here are the stats for the panel discussions from the day they were posted:



Thank you to all my followers who keep coming back every day.  I hope that you continue to find Two Ends of the Pen an interesting site to visit.

Interview with Susan Bischoff

Can you give us a brief overview of your latest book?The Talent Chronicles series is set in a world in which some kids are developing supernatural abilities. Because of a fear factor in the general population, enhanced by government propaganda, when a kid is discovered to have one of these abilities—Talents—they're removed to a State School where most are never heard from again.

In Hush Money, the first book in the series, Joss is a teenage girl who has always been very focused on keeping a low profile and keeping her secret. Kat, a new girl at school, decides to make a project of bringing Joss out of her shell, and when Kat gets into trouble with a guy named Marco, Joss gets pulled into a situation where she has to decide between her father's strict, don't get involved training and her conscience. Meanwhile, Marco's friend Dylan, on whom Joss has had a crush since, like, forever, finds himself caught in a similar dilemma, between the habit of a friendship that's dying, his conscience, and his developing feelings for Joss.

A short story, Impulse Control, introduces a different set of characters and takes place in one of the State Schools in The Talent Chronicles world. It's available for free at many sites that allow free ebooks as well as in the Kiss Me, Kill Me paranormal romance anthology.

The continuation of Joss's and Dylan's story, Heroes 'Til Curfew, is my current work in progress. A release date for that is not yet available.

Did you try the traditional route to publishing, i.e. querying agents/publishers?I never went that way. I became aware of the current trends in self-publishing at a time when I had, essentially, given up on writing this series because the attitudes around me regarding traditional publishing—especially for series work—were so negative that it no longer seemed reasonable to put so much time and emotional effort into the project. Indie publishing gave me the spark to start writing again.

Do you belong to a critique group? Have they helped improve your writing?I don't belong to a critique group, but I do have a long-time critique partner, Kait Nolan, author of the Mirus series. She and I have been working closely together for…four years now. Without a doubt, it has been the most important relationship in my writing life. I've learned so much through working and learning with her, things I never would have come to sitting in a room by myself.

I think some kind of critique relationship, whether it's with one person or a group of people, is the best thing you can do for your writer's education. That said, a bad fit can do you more harm than good and it's important to feel that the relationship is helping you grow rather than discouraging you.

What factors influenced your decision to self-publish to Amazon?I loved the idea of being able to work on my own schedule, and the knowledge that I could continue the series, in any direction I wanted to go, as long as I wanted to write it. To me, indie publishing is very much like indie crafting. It's about creating what you're moved to create and then finding those readers who are like you enough to want that.

Did you hire an editor to review your manuscript before publishing?I didn't know whom to hire, so I did have a dozen people I knew review the manuscript before publishing it. Kait and I had been over it quite a bit by the time it got into the hands of the beta readers, and I got little back in terms of editorial feedback. Kait does copy-editing at a professional level for her day job, and also on a free-lance basis for authors and a few publications, and some of my beta readers were fellow authors. So I felt I was pretty covered in that respect.

I think I got pretty lucky with Hush Money in that it did come out to be a very tight manuscript that accounted for the lack of editorial comments. I believe in a good critique and would love to see more content-editing options readily available to the indie community.

What have you've learned during your self-publishing journey?Seriously, that could take all day. It feels like I've learned everything, and then I turn around and learn something new. Two highlights:

Everyone's here for different reasons and with different goals. Assuming everyone wants the same thing often leads to bad feelings. 

Everyone's path is different because of how they got here, where they want to go, and a whole host of other factors. There is little to be gained by comparing your numbers, or other earmarks of success, with someone else except a whole pot of crazy, because it's really apples and oranges.

Besides Amazon, are there any other sites where your books are for sale?In ebook at Smashwords, Barnes & Noble, Kobo, Sony, iBookstore, Scribd, Borders AU.

In paperback at Amazon US and UK, B&N, Book Depository, CreateSpace, Books-a-Million, Borders. (At some of these it's available via third-party vendors only.)

I think limiting yourself in terms of vendors and formats is a mistake and it's one I really can't get my head around when I see it. I know that when I was getting started I was finding a lot of work available on Amazon only. I hope we're getting to a point in the indie community where we're keeping everyone informed about available vendors and how to work with them.

What kinds of marketing [twitter, facebook, blog, forums] are you involved with for promoting your book(s)?I'm at a point now where I'm really not actively marketing (and it shows in the sales and rankings, I'm afraid). I never did much on forums, and while I have a presence on Facebook and Myspace, I never really mastered those. I blog and I try to show up on Twitter. I had some luck generating interest via Goodreads in the beginning. (Not by spamming discussion threads, though! See the Increasing Kindle Rank series on my blog if you need details.) I think the best thing I did was to try to get reviews in the beginning, especially from book bloggers who have been very kind to me. Those early reviews helped me achieve visibility and good word of mouth.

Do you find it difficult to juggle your time between marketing your current book and writing your next book?Totally. And it might not be so much time as frame of mind. In general I seem to be the kind of person who gets involved completely in one thing at a time. When I was heavily into learning about indie, marketing, etc., my writing really suffered. So right now I'm trying to put that aside and focus on the writing again. I envy multi-taskers.

What advice would you give a new author just entering into the self-publishing arena?Be certain that you and the work are ready before it goes outGet the best cover art you can affordKeep the price on your first book as low and impulse-level as you canDon't be afraid to give away lots of review copiesLearn to think like your customer

What's next for you?I've just been approached by and signed with literary agent Jane Dystel. She's very enthusiastic about my writing and about the commercial appeal of the series. As I finish up Heroes 'Til Curfew, the next step for me may well be traditional publication, something that fills me with terror and excitement at the same time. The concerns I have about the industry are still there, but somewhat mitigated by things I've learned this year and an understanding that everything is not black, white, and, like, graven in stone. Regardless of some of the mathematical formulas that have been floating around and the possibility being able to make more money as an indie with higher royalties, it's impossible for me to ignore the potential for reaching a larger audience. And probably more importantly, it would be hard for me to turn my back on the learning experience such an opportunity might provide. That's the part I get really excited about. 

  

New Release: A SHADOW'S LIGHT by J.M. Pierce

Book blurb: After fleeing his home in Lincoln , Test Davis settles in the small town of Saratoga , Wyoming , where he hopes to slip into obscurity.  But when his boss's niece, Alyssa, draws him reluctantly into a relationship, he's afraid he won't be able to hide who—and what—he really is.



When a horrific confrontation with to co-workers forces Test to go back on the run, he reunites with an old friend, discovers that Alyssa has a secret of her own, and finds the answer to the question he's been too afraid to ask:

What am I?

Amazon buy link: http://www.amazon.com/Shadows-Light-Book-Shadow-ebook/dp/B004WKQLR0





Author Bio:J.M. Pierce is a simple midwestern man with a creative side who has found writing as his primary outlet. He lives happily with his wife and two children in rural Kansas and finds happiness in a good cup of coffee, a Kansas sunrise, a good book, the sound of his daughter singing, his son's laughter, and his wife's eyes. Everything else is gravy.







   

HORROR: A Constant State of Fear

On Horror 

Michael R. Collingsprofessorcollings@yahoo.com

A cursory look at fiction offerings at Kindle, Smashwords, NookBook, Diesel, and other online outlets suggests that as a genre, horror is at the least holding its own. A search under "horror" in the Kindle Store leads to over 12,700 individual offerings. Title after title boasts vampires, zombies, werewolves, ghouls, ghosts, and other denizens of darkness and despair. Granted, some of the novels may be little more than mindless forays into blood and gore for the sake of blood and gore; and others may demonstrate little in the way of sophisticated writing skills; but the fact remains that horror novels—many of them very good horror novels—provide one of the mainstays of e-book publication.

Several months ago, while finishing the manuscript for a collection of essays, Toward Other Worlds: Perspectives on John Milton, C. S. Lewis, Stephen King, Orson Scott Card, and Others  (Wildside, August 2010; Adobe Digital Edition, September 2010), it struck me that it might be worthwhile considering some of the reasons why horror is popular right now, particularly in e-publications.

Certainly we live in a world that invites us to contemplate darkness in manifold forms. We fear diseases, including threatened and threatening pandemics that might sweep the globe at any moment. We fear natural disasters that seem to be coming faster and hitting harder than our preparations (when we even have any) can cope with. We fear political and social instability that leads to revolution and death. We fear alterations in the way the world itself functions, with battles-of-words—and often more—over such concepts as sudden climate change, overpopulation and resource management, genetic engineering, and many more. We fear…. We fear….

We live, as Michael Crichton wrote in one of his last books, in a persistent State of Fear.

So why do we find ourselves drawn in such numbers to fictions that seem designed to manipulate and heighten that state of fear by extending it to the supernatural?

In a word…why horror?

In his 1981 study of horror fiction, Danse Macabre, Stephen King discusses three levels of horror:

I recognize terror as the finest emotion and so I will try to terrorize the reader. But if I find that I cannot terrify, I will try to horrify, and if I find that I cannot horrify, I'll go for the gross-out. I'm not proud. (Ch. 2)

Revulsion—the Gross-out—is, as King suggests, relatively easy to accomplish. At its simplest merely requires sufficient blood and guts, painstakingly detailed in graphic descriptions, accompanied in many cases by graphic language. At this level the most vocal arguments against horror as genre take place. It exploits base instincts and antisocial behavior. It is excessively violent, even for a culture in which violence has become almost commonplace. It imports creatures of darkness when our world already hosts more than we can manage. It lacks in subtlety and realism. It is escapism (although why one would want to escape to such worlds is problematical at best). It is grotesque. It is obscene.

At the other extreme, true Terror, the moment that generates a frisson down the spine just before the monster is revealed, requires extraordinary facility with language, characterization, and setting to accomplish, and only a few masters—among them Poe and Lovecraft, as well as King himself—create it consistently. When it occurs, and when Horror and Revulsion are used critically and carefully, such literature may demonstrate a number of useful traits.

At the thematic level perhaps, horror can be applied metaphorically or symbolically. The literary monsters may stand for literal monsters that threaten everyday life. A vampire suddenly appearing in a small town and systematically preying on its inhabitations may easily transform into a condemnation of the contemporary sense of isolation that afflicts many if not most communities. People live separated lives. They do not notice the alterations in or absence of their neighbors until it is too late—the bonds of civility have already broken and the sense of community disappears.

The vampire may also be, and often is, sexualized until it exemplifies both the allure and the tragedy of uninhibited lust. By virtue of its existence—neither dead nor alive; its mode of feeding—penetration and bloodletting; and the inescapably body-oriented nature of its attacks—usually male upon female, the vampire can easily slip from a figure of horror into quasi-pornography, especially when the transmission of blood is described in loving, overly sensual detail.

The werewolf may represent the abrupt, inexplicable intrusion of death into a family or community. Unseen and unsuspected until it lashes out in rage and inflicts carnage on its victims, the werewolf parallels disease—cancer, for example—and its insidious rampage within a healthy body. It may stand for accident or fate; there is no cause, no rational or purpose behind its sudden eruption—it simply is, and by its presence disrupts order and security.

Most other literary monsters may serve parallel functions. Zombies epitomize the loss of agency and rationality; Amazons demonstrate the threat of sexual disparity; Creatures from Other Dimensions, including Lovecraft's Great Old Ones, embody the threat of the unknown, of the breakdown of reason and intellect into madness. Ghosts, Demons, the Haunted Place/Bad Place, and other denizens of darkness—each may in its turn speak volumes about the human condition.

On a more literal level, horror may work in a manner similar to classical tragedy. When written effectively, with an eye on creating terror rather than mere revulsion, horror may combine pity and fear to achieve a kind of Aristotelian catharsis—one focused on the purging of specific strong emotions, including fear itself. Horror allows the reader to confront an object or objects of pity, usually the victims, frequently innocent or inoffensive victims; and an object of terror, horror, or revulsion—the monster or monsters. And by juxtaposition of the two, the reader may legitimately feel, even experience fear in a safe, controlled environment. This fear may in fact be physically expressed, through a rise in heartbeat, increased rate of respiration, even a literal chill up the spine. In any case, the physical response allows the reader to undergo and thereby purge the effects of fear without physical danger.

And finally, the reader of horror is more often than not exposed to the most literal sort of morality. Unlike in the experiential world, in the worlds of horror, evil, wrong, or even misguided actions have immediate consequences. Cause and effect are clearly linked. If a mad scientist creates a monster, eventually the monster will turn on its creator. At least as far back as Shelley's Frankenstein, this has been a leitmotif of horror fiction. The responsibility of creator to creature—and for the acts of the creature—in part defines the plot itself. If a teenage couple have illicit sex and thereby participate in an adult action without being prepared to accept the concomitant responsibilities, they die, frequently during the act itself. There is no reprieve, no opportunity for a second chance. Transgression leads to death.

It is possible for horror itself to be essentially immoral. Novels exist in which characters are introduced and almost immediately destroyed, merely for the sake of blood and gore. The monster itself becomes little more than a killing machine and the plot determined not by causal relationships among episodes but by the simple need for more blood. The horror of unrelieved revulsion, in other words, runs the risk of existing solely for the sake of that revulsion, with little thought of creating the more transcendent horror or terror. Such fiction verges on the immoral, if not the obscene, not through the representation of unacceptable language or events but because of its cavalier attitude toward characters and their lives.

On the whole, however, those writers most frequently cited as masters in the field—Poe, Lovecraft, King, Koontz, McCammon, and a handful of others—consistently provide tales that, however close they come to mere revulsion, ultimately lead the reader to a heightened sense of morality, of catharsis of fear, and of the relationship between story and life, between characters and the reader.

This is one reason why I write horror. My first such novel, The House Beyond the Hill (Wildside, 2007; Kindle, 2011) explicitly concentrates on fear. In fact, my editor affixed a subtitle to the book when it was first published, "A Novel of Fear." But it is simultaneously a novel of redemption. Fear exists. In the world of the novel, it quite literally destroys, and in doing so condemns both body and soul. But by understanding fear and combating it as a community my characters overcome their own private horrors and ultimately redeem even the dead.

My second novel The Slab (Wildside, 2010; Kindle, 2011) works on a slightly different level. It's subtitle reads: "A Novel of Horror." In the world of The Slab, things—most specifically, houses—may be inherently evil and inflict horror and terror upon those who live there. One reviewer compared the novel to Shirley Jackson's The Haunting of Hill House, writing:

In Haunting, the house was built off-center to resemble the mind of its architect; the house is crazy. In The Slab, the house's foundation is cracked, corrupted and disturbed to the core and a hopeless cause-and that is the literal sense. In the spiritual sense, it was built by a corrupt man and is destined to destroy anyone who lives there.

From such evil there is no easy escape. The house consumes everyone. None remain unscathed.

It was a fascinating novel to write because I lived in the house I describe for nearly a quarter of a century…and it came near to literally driving me mad. Almost everything in The Slab has at least a tangential connection to something that happened to me or my family…carried to the nth degree of horror and terror. And, in the end, I was able to bring my own anger and fury at the house (and the builder, and the people who sold it to us knowing its serious construction flaws) to bear on a safe object—I could destroy the imaginary construct that stood, in my mind, for reality.

My current novel-in-progress, Images, deals with the question of identity. We fear the loss of our identity—our selves­­--in many ways. Literally, evil people comb through garbage cans seeking bits of information by which they can insinuate themselves into innocent lives and steal at leisure. Others strike deeper, at our sense of who and what we are, challenging the assumptions that lay at the root of our beings. What it means to be male, what it means to be female, how one sex relates to the other, where boundaries between them might lie—these questions lie at the heart of Images, mediated through the metaphor of television and film.

In each case, the novels confront some element of our world that is in jeopardy. The frisson of fear, of terror that each might create in the reader is part of its reason for existence. If we can confront that fear, that terror through imaginative fiction, and walk away strengthened, then to that extent it might be easier to confront the horrors of daily life.

Author bio: Michael R. Collings has published nearly 120 books over the past thirty years, many of them studies of horror literature as exemplified by the works of Stephen King, Dean R. Koontz, Robert McCammon and others. He is considered to be a ranking authority on King. He has also published horror novels and collections of dark short tales.